Ginny and Harry were moments away from seeing their best friends for the first time in two months.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
"It's mad, Ginny," Neville said.
"I know. But they need it. At the very least, Snape shouldn't have it, right? It's the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, for Merlin's sake!"
"How are you gonna get it to them? I thought you didn't know where they were."
"I– I don't. And I don't know. Yet. But if we get it… we could hide it in the Room of Requirement until we know how to get it to them."
Neville shook his head. "It's still mad."
"Look, if you don't want to help me, I'll find someone else. Or I'll do it myself. But I need to do something. I'm tired of letting them rule everything while we keep our heads down and try not to be tortured."
"No, I'm in. It's absolutely mad, but I want to help," Neville responded immediately, making Ginny smile for the first time in a while.
Luna was even easier to convince. "Yes, you're right. The sword doesn't belong to him. I've always wanted to try stealing something. This will be fun." Ginny was so grateful that she didn't even question her friend's potentially kleptomaniac hopes.
It was easy to plan. Ginny had a stash of WWW merchandise that Fred and George had sent with her to Hogwarts that was concealed as miscellaneous supplies. The plan was for Neville to set off fireworks, a portable swamp, and Decoy Detonators in the Great Hall at dinner while Ginny and Luna snuck into Snape's office and took the sword.
It was harder to execute. The most difficult part of the plan was getting Snape's office password. It would've been easy if they'd had Harry's Invisibility Cloak, but the whereabouts of that were as known as his own whereabouts. The best idea Ginny had was to hide as close to Snape's office as she could and wait for someone to approach and use the password.
Several nights of waiting in an empty classroom finally paid off when Amycus practically shouted, "Humbug!" She peeked out the door to make sure that the password worked, and, seeing Amycus climbing the spiral staircase, she was satisfied.
The plan was put in motion two days later. Ginny left the Great Hall in the middle of dinner, and Luna left a couple minutes later. They walked as quickly as possible, without drawing suspicion, to the Headmaster's Office, speeding up a little more when they heard the first of the fireworks and Decoy Detonators echoing from the Great Hall.
"Humbug," Ginny said, pumping her fist to herself when the gargoyle moved aside. She sprinted up the stairs with Luna and opened the door to the empty office.
"Shut it!" she instructed the portraits around the room that were frantically trying to get her to leave.
"Alohomora," Ginny tried on the lock to the sword's case, but nothing happened. "I'm gonna have to break it," she told Luna.
"Be quiet," Luna warned. Ginny nodded and raised her wand when Dumbledore's portrait caught her eye. He was looking at her sadly and shaking his head. He couldn't possibly be disappointed in her for taking the sword back from his murderer. It didn't make sense. She didn't have time to dwell on it though.
"Bombarda!" she cast, blowing the case open and grabbing the sword. Merlin, this thing was heavy. How had Harry managed to wield it when he was twelve?
Triumphant, Ginny and Luna began running down the stairs, just needing to make it to the Room of Requirement to complete the plan's execution. Luna suddenly stopped, and Ginny nearly clattered into her, catching herself on the wall of the staircase.
"Luna, what–" Ginny began, stopping when she saw the obstacle on the stairs beyond Luna.
"My, my. What have we here?" Snape asked in a mocking voice. Ginny felt her heart leap into her throat, seized with fear at what he would do to them.
After an hour of questioning the two of them and Neville– Ginny still had no idea how he knew they were planning this– Snape sentenced them to detention with Hagrid that night. She almost couldn't believe their luck, even though she waited until they were at Hagrid's to voice that.
"I can't believe this is all the punishment we're getting," she said.
"I thought for sure he'd give us to the Carrows," Neville agreed.
"I'm glad we're doing this instead. This will be much more fun than torture," Luna added.
Hagrid didn't even ask what they'd done to get detention. He just told them to help plant some more gourds since slugs had been getting to his plants once again and promised them rock cakes when they were done. While they were out there, Ginny voiced the other thought she'd had since they'd started this adventure.
"I don't know about you two, but even though we failed… I feel good. Like… we actually tried to do something. Beats sitting around waiting for something to happen to us."
"Yeah… are you saying you've got something else in mind?"
Ginny paused for a moment and wiped the sweat off her brow. "When Har– when the trio felt oppressed by the school two years ago, they started the D.A., right? So… I– I think… it might be time to bring it back."
They both stared at her. "Like… Dumbledore's Army? That D.A.?" Neville asked.
"That's the one."
"But Harry's not here," Luna said, making Ginny feel like a fist was squeezing her heart. She was very well aware that Harry wasn't here.
"True, but a lot of us still are. We wouldn't have to teach Defence lessons if we didn't want to. We could just use it to get a break from the Carrows. Or to mess with them for once."
Neville nodded slowly. "I like that idea."
"So you're in?" Ginny asked hopefully.
Neville closed his eyes for a second before opening them and nodding firmly. "In for a Knut, in for a Galleon."
"Luna?"
"Oh yes. It'll be so fun to spend more time with my friends!" she exclaimed happily.
Ginny smiled a little. "Then it's settled. Dumbledore's Army is recruiting again."
The week had gone by pretty slowly, in Ginny's opinion. She still had a lot of fun with Harry and had a great time with Quidditch practices, but anticipating seeing Hermione and even Ron this weekend was making the week feel like it was moving at half speed. The weekend was finally almost upon them though, and Ginny couldn't wait. But before the weekend got started, there was another meeting of Harry's defence class, and he'd taken her advice and gathered a group of older students to discuss helping.
They had arrived at the Great Hall early and were seated in a circle near the front. Ginny glanced around the circle, seeing a reliable group of people that could be trusted with the task. Along with her, Luna, Dean, Mia, and Justin Finch-Fletchley had all agreed to help, as well as the year's Head Boy and Head Girl, Owen MacGregor and Astoria Greengrass. It reminded her so much of the D.A. that it was a bit disorienting, even if the members weren't all the same.
When Harry had first mentioned that he wanted to get a group of seventh years to help out, Ginny had emphasised the importance of having at least one person from all four houses. Her Dumbledore's Army had primarily been led by herself, Neville, and Luna, while several Hufflepuffs like Hannah Abbott had also helped significantly. They hadn't had any Slytherin representation then, but Ginny knew that Astoria had helped behind the scenes on more than one occasion to get the names of students in danger to the D.A., even though she couldn't do more to help as a member of a prominent pureblood family.
Harry had been a tad hesitant about the idea, which surprised Ginny slightly. Over the summer, he'd talked a lot about unity and overcoming differences, but she suspected that some biases took a little more time to work out. He also didn't know Astoria as well as Ginny did, which really wasn't saying much. Harry's class wasn't the only one that had tensions between Gryffindor and Slytherin, although Astoria hadn't ever been someone encouraging conflict between the houses to Ginny's knowledge. Theirs was more a situation of knowing of and respecting the other without ever interacting much, but Ginny was actually looking forward to changing that this term with this defence class.
"Right, so… thanks for coming. It really means a lot to have you all here," Harry began, seemingly a little flustered with the fact that they were all there specifically to help him and were giving him their undivided attention.
"I was worried about this before I started doing this– there's just too many students for me to teach them all personally. I know I spoke to all of you individually about it a little, but I'm hoping that you can help me out. Basically, in the next couple weeks, I'm gonna try to come up with some slightly different lessons for different age groups so that the older students can advance faster and the younger ones don't get left behind. My thought was since there's seven of you, each of you could work with one year specifically, and then I'll be doing my best to check in with all of you and see where I can help.
"I dunno if that's the best way to do things, but it's what I came up with. Chances are, I'll only come up with two or three unique lessons in a week instead of different ones for each year, so you'll be able to help each other out more, but I think it would still be good to have each person assigned a year. But I figure that you all can help pretty much any level since you were all in the N.E.W.T. course. Er– so yeah, any questions?"
Astoria was the first one to speak up. "I think it's a good idea. But… speaking of N.E.W.T.s, how are we going to be sure that we're still on track to pass them?"
Harry looked like he hadn't actually considered it before, so he thought about it for a second before answering. "I suppose if everyone's regularly free before this class period like you were today, then explaining the new assignments for the younger students won't take too long, and then we can spend the rest of the time doing whatever we should be doing for N.E.W.T.s so we don't fall behind. And I can help out more with whoever's working with the other seventh years since you'll be teaching things you've just learned."
Astoria nodded, looking satisfied with that answer, and nobody else expressed any doubts about that plan. "How are we deciding who gets what year?" Mia asked.
"I mean, I wasn't planning on assigning them. I sorta figured if anyone wanted to work with a specific class, we could just figure it out like that. Although Dean or Justin may be best for seventh years, just because they're a year older and may not be seen quite as much like peers as the rest of you."
"I'll take the sixth years then," Mia quickly said, clearly feeling the most comfortable with teaching them since she was friends with Demelza too. Ginny understood completely because she was the exact same way with her choice.
"I'll take second," she volunteered, eager to teach Emily's year. Harry noticed and smiled quickly at her.
Dean nodded. "I can take the seventh years." Ginny thought that was for the best. He had to have skills at defence to have survived on the run in the past year, and being older than everyone he was teaching couldn't hurt.
"I can take the fifth years since I already know all the prefects," Owen added.
"I'd like to teach the first years," Astoria requested, impressing Ginny slightly.
Since neither Luna nor Justin had a preference, Justin agreed to teach the fourth years while Luna taught the third years.
"Brilliant. That worked out better than I was expecting, honestly. For today, I was thinking that the third years and younger could focus on shield charms and practising Expelliarmus more, while the older students are going to do all that and start practising stunning too. So everyone's good with that?"
When everyone nodded, Harry added, "And I promise I'll do some research and have a real N.E.W.T. level lesson next week. But yeah, thanks again for helping me out with this. It means a lot." That much was obvious from his grateful expression.
With about fifteen minutes before people started arriving, they chatted idly amongst themselves. Ginny was a little surprised to see Astoria strike up a conversation with Harry while she was talking to Mia and Luna, but she figured it was good for Harry to get to know her better since he knew everyone else pretty well.
Luna had just gotten started talking about how the Ministry was breeding magical birds that could spy on Muggles when the doors to the Great Hall opened and the entire school flooded in. Ginny had to admit she was excited. She loved hanging out with the younger students, and this was bound to be more fun than the life-threatening D.A. had been last year. Hopefully.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
Harry had known the task he'd taken on in teaching Defence to the entire school was daunting. But it wasn't until he got some help and felt some of the weight being taken off his shoulders that he realised just how much stress he'd felt like he was under. He'd assumed that some of the people Ginny had suggested wouldn't be interested for one reason or another. That everyone he'd asked was not only willing but eager to help was a great encouragement to him.
"Harry," Astoria began from her seat next to his. He turned towards the brunette witch who always appeared so poised and calm. He didn't think he'd ever actually talked to her before two days ago when he asked her to come to this meeting. Harry thought he might've shaken a little bit of her put-togetherness then, considering she'd seemed a bit stunned that he was inviting her to something like this, but she had accepted the invitation immediately.
"I was so surprised when you asked me to help you with this that I didn't even thank you. It's honestly nice to see someone like you making efforts to include all the houses," Astoria said in a tone that a younger Harry wouldn't have thought possible to hear from a Slytherin.
"Oh… yeah, that's no problem. Really though, you should be thanking Ginny. It was her idea to invite you," Harry responded.
"Ah, so you're not the one interested in house unity," Astoria replied, with a hint of coldness creeping into her voice.
"Er– that's not really… I mean–" Harry tried but was cut off by Astoria smiling at him.
"I believe you call that a joke? Contrary to popular belief, Slytherins are capable of humour," she informed him in a wry tone.
"I know that," Harry replied, a little flustered. He couldn't actually think of a time he'd witnessed that before though, other than cruel jokes from people like Malfoy. He barely knew Astoria, but she didn't seem capable of humour like that.
"Good. And anyways, even if it was Ginny's idea, you still had to agree and invite me. I think it sends an important message to everyone. After the past few years, the last thing we need to do is actually fight over silly things like houses. I'm pretty sure the Daily Prophet wrote about some noble wizard saying something about how we're all bonded by magic and shouldn't be looking for ways to divide ourselves."
"You read what I said at Colin's funeral?" Harry asked, recognising the words he'd spoken that had made headlines in May. He was more than a little surprised that Astoria had actually read and remembered what he'd said though.
Astoria shook her head. "I was there. You were right when you said he never knew a stranger. He was one of the only people who talked to me outside of Slytherin when we were younger. I liked having classes with him."
That surprised Harry even more. "I didn't know you two were close. I'm sorry about… you know."
"We weren't… really. Close, I mean. Not as much as I would've liked, at least. I was still afraid, for a long time, actually, about what the older Slytherins thought of me. I used to have a terrible crush on Draco Malfoy, so I tried to do what I thought he'd like, which meant staying away from other houses when I could help it."
Harry couldn't help himself from grimacing, and Astoria chuckled. "My tastes have improved slightly since then, thankfully. I finally got past that at some point in my fifth year, but then Colin wasn't here last year until…"
He nodded, thinking he could forgive her since she'd moved past that crush on his former nemesis. "Anyways," Astoria continued, "I just wanted to thank you for including me. Even if it wasn't your idea. It still means a lot."
"Sure thing," Harry replied, not having much else to say to that. He hadn't realised it would be such a big deal to her, but he was very glad that Ginny had suggested asking Astoria to help.
The doors to the Great Hall opened, and students began flooding in. Within a few minutes, all the chairs were filled, and Harry was once again standing at the front of the Great Hall, this time without an introduction from Professor McGonagall. He found himself feeling slightly less nervous than he had at this time a week ago, and he wasn't sure if that was because he was becoming more comfortable or because he had help now. Maybe it was both.
"Right. Thanks everybody for coming. Today, we're gonna talk a little bit more about the most basic aspects of defence in theory before practising some more spells, but first, I wanted to update you all on how this class is gonna be structured moving forward. I've asked some of my friends to help me out with giving more personal attention to each year, so if they'll stand, I'll introduce them to you all."
The seven stood, and Harry pointed to them, one by one, as he told everyone who they were and which year they'd be helping with. There were more than a few intrigued looks when he introduced Astoria, which confirmed for him the importance of having her help out. He also noticed Emily pumping her fist when he announced that Ginny would be with the second years.
Once everyone was introduced, they sat back down and he continued. "So basically, they'll be working with you all, and I'll be checking in with each of them throughout the practical portion of the class to see if there's anything I need to help with in their group. They're all extremely good at defensive magic, and I know they'll be great with all of you. I also want to mention that structuring the course like this will also allow for us to teach different things to different ages and make sure everyone is learning what they should be.
"We're going to start with that today. Last week, everyone learned or reviewed Expelliarmus, and we'll be practising it more, but we're also going to add a new spell to your arsenal. Defensive spells can be more important than offensive spells. If you're surprised by an attack or don't immediately disarm your opponent, you'll need to dodge or block the spells they're casting at you. The most common way of doing this is with the Shield Charm, which you cast by saying Protego. There's no wand movement with this one. It's all about your will and intention.
"For example, depending on what you want, you could just throw a shield in front of you, or you can make a bubble around yourself. Like this: Protego!" Harry cast, enveloping himself in a slightly blue-tinted bubble for a moment.
"The more will and experience behind the shield, the more it can protect you from. Realistically, I don't expect anybody who's just learning this now to be able to block anything with it. It's harder than you think to focus on casting a strong shield. But if you keep practising and improving, it'll become one of the most useful spells that you know. And… actually, let's have our leads come up here for a moment and surround me, I guess."
Once they did, some of them looking a little dubious, Harry spoke again. "I wanna demonstrate how useful shields can be, so all of you cast something kinda simple at me when I count to three. I don't really want to be killed if this doesn't work though, so maybe no stunners?"
They all nodded– except Ginny, who rolled her eyes and shook her head. "With enough practice, your shield can eventually work like this," he told the class. "One, two, three, Protego!" Harry cast loudly, throwing the bubble shield around him as seven different-coloured jets of light shot at him before ricocheting off and against the stone walls of the Great Hall.
"Just like that," Harry said, like he hadn't been a little worried that his shield might break with seven spells being cast on it at once. He suspected that the leads were taking it easy on him, and he wasn't complaining.
"So that's going to be the focus of today; however, a lot of the older students, particularly fourth years and up, may already be familiar with Shield Charms. So if you demonstrate an understanding of shields, the next spell that we'll be learning and the older students are welcome to get a head start on, with the approval of their lead is the Stunning Spell, Stupefy. This one is about as useful as Expelliarmus because it knocks out whoever you cast it on, which takes them out of the fight, just like taking their wand.
"Like I said, the incantation is Stupefy, and you cast it by flicking your wand at your opponent. If you do get to a point where you're ready to try this one, let your lead know so they can conjure mats for you and your partner because I really don't want to be sending people with cracked skulls to Madam Pomfrey. But I figure you all should know what it looks like beforehand, so Ginny, could you come up here?"
Harry hadn't discussed this with Ginny beforehand since he'd just had the idea, so she was a little surprised. But her reaction was nothing compared to the dozens of wide eyes belonging to people who thought they were about to see Harry knock his girlfriend unconscious. Harry quickly conjured a mat before turning back to the crowd and Ginny.
"So Ginny's gonna cast Stupefy on me, I'll fall back onto this mat, and I should wake up in a few minutes," he explained. He probably should've been a little concerned at how many excited grins he saw in the audience, but the one that definitely should've concerned him the most was on Ginny's face. He'd briefly wondered if he would need to convince her to stun him for the demonstration, but she looked eager to do it. He turned towards her and kept his wand at his side.
She winked at him before flicking her wand. "Stupefy!"
Harry woke groggily to the sound of spells being cast and people laughing. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up and saw that his leads had apparently started the lesson while he was unconscious. It was good to know they really didn't need him to make things run smoothly. Ginny smiled at him over her shoulder, apparently checking to make sure that he had in fact woken up, before turning back to help a Hufflepuff boy who was struggling with blocking a Disarming Charm.
Once Harry finally did get up and started making rounds, he was pleased to see how well things were functioning. It was clear that having more people helping was a brilliant idea, and that was evidenced by how many younger students were picking up Shield Charms, which was supposed to be more advanced than their level. Many of the older students had also displayed mastery of shields and had started stunning, and he was grateful that Dean, Mia, and Owen were making sure that everyone was being safe while practising.
Yet again, the end of the lesson came rather quickly, and Harry dismissed the class with encouragement on their progress before thanking the leads for their help. He stayed behind to clean up the mats, which didn't take but a minute or two, and then he walked out of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall, where Ginny was waiting for him with a smile on her face. Harry took her hand and they began walking to the Gryffindor common room.
"You seemed pretty excited to be stunning me. How long have you been wanting to do that?" Harry joked.
"How long ago did you break up with me?" Ginny responded immediately, making Harry think that there might've been more truth in his joke than he'd initially thought.
"And here I thought we were past that," he replied with a sideways grin at her.
"Oh we definitely are. But there were definitely times in the past year when I wanted nothing more than to stun you," she said with a pretty smile that made him think that was reasonable.
"I can't say I blame you. At least you got your wish."
Ginny squeezed his hand. "I definitely did." And somehow, he didn't think she was talking about stunning him anymore.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
It had taken two days for Ginny to notice that something was off. Harry and Ron had spent a lot of time in the common room playing chess, and Ginny had spent more time than she cared to admit watching them– well, Harry at least. On the day before the new term started, Ginny realised what was off about everything. Hermione wasn't in her usual spot reading a book near the boys. Come to think of it, Ginny hadn't seen Hermione since she'd returned to Hogwarts from the Christmas holiday.
She didn't want to interrupt Harry's concentration, so she decided to do some investigative work on her own and find out where Hermione was. Her first stop was the library, since that's where Hermione spent the majority of her time. Truthfully, Ginny wasn't completely sure what was compelling her to look for Hermione. Obviously, she was best friends with Harry and Ron, and she'd been kind to Ginny, but it wasn't like they were really close or anything. But for some reason, Ginny felt like something was off about Hermione not spending the final days of the break with her best friends.
It turned out that her first guess was a good one. She found Hermione as soon as she entered the library because she was quite literally the only student in the entire library. She had a stack of books in front of her, but the faraway look in her eyes suggested that she wasn't really reading any of them. She didn't even notice that Ginny was approaching until she sat across from her.
"Oh– hi, Ginny," Hermione said weakly, having jumped a little as she was shaken out of her thoughts.
"Hi, Hermione. How was your Christmas?" Ginny asked, thinking that was a safe place to start.
It turned out she was mistaken. Hermione's bottom lip quivered for a moment before she burst into tears, burying her head in her arms so all Ginny could see was a shaking mound of bushy hair. Tentatively, Ginny reached out and lightly patted her hand, having no idea what she'd said that would've caused this dramatic of a reaction.
It felt like it took ages for Hermione to finally stop crying, and she looked a little surprised that Ginny was still there when she raised her head, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her robe. "I'm sorry. It's just– it wasn't good." Hermione answered.
Ginny frowned. "Have you talked to Harry and Ron about it?"
For a moment, Ginny thought Hermione was going to break into a fresh batch of tears, but the girl surprised her by steadying herself before shaking her head. "They hate me."
Ginny cocked her head, sure that she'd misunderstood. "They can't hate you. You're like one of their favourite people."
Hermione shook her head again. "Not anymore."
"Well… what happened?"
Ginny listened as Hermione explained the story of Harry receiving a Firebolt for Christmas– she did her best not to turn green with envy– and explained her concern that the gift may have come from Sirius Black as a means to kill Harry. When Hermione said that she told McGonagall about the broom and her suspicions and that McGonagall had decided to have the broom 'stripped down', Ginny actually had to fight to keep a neutral expression on her face. She was finding it harder to think that Harry and Ron were wrong for treating Hermione like this, honestly.
The only thing that made her doubt their response was seeing the impact it had on Hermione. It was obvious that she was only looking out for Harry's safety, even if she'd gone about it in an annoying and painful manner. She'd never seen Hermione like this before, but she was pretty sure she could cheer her up. Besides, Ginny could definitely use more good friends. She was still getting to know the girls in her dormitory after the hazy blur that was her first year, and she didn't have many other people to talk to. This was an opportunity for both of them.
"It's about time you learned how stupid boys can be. Come on. You're gonna eat dinner with me and my roommates tonight," Ginny said, taking Hermione's hand and pulling her out of the chair. To her surprise, Hermione didn't resist in the slightest, and for a brief moment, Ginny thought she saw a smile on her face.
Ginny knew how much Harry had missed his best friends– probably more than she did– though he rarely showed it. But even though she had plenty of good friends at Hogwarts, she still missed both Ron and Hermione a lot. Obviously she missed her brother, but she hadn't realised just how much she relied on Hermione's friendship until she was gone.
They hadn't been friends right away– Hermione was too preoccupied with Ron and Harry, and Ginny was too preoccupied with being the Heir of Slytherin– but when they did, it felt like they should've done it much sooner. Even after Ron and Harry made up with Hermione, the two of them still spent a lot of time together, and then they spent the better part of the next several summers together as well.
Now, both Ginny and Harry were moments away from seeing their best friends for the first time in two months, having planned to meet them at The Three Broomsticks, and they were walking hand in hand out of the gates to the grounds when they were practically tackled.
It took Ginny a second to get her bearings and realise that the person trying to tackle them was, in fact, Hermione, who had one arm around each of them and was squeezing them tighter than Ginny had thought possible.
"Surprise!" Ron exclaimed, joining in, though slightly less aggressively than Hermione had.
Hermione was blushing when she finally let go of them, but then she hugged them both individually while Ron clapped Harry on the back and gave Ginny an awkward side hug that reminded her that her older brother could be rather stupid on occasion. A little annoyed, she gave him a real hug.
"I missed you, you bloody pillock," Ginny told her brother, who was very surprised at the show of affection.
They all slowly started walking towards Hogsmeade, more interested in talking to each other than getting butterbeer. Harry immediately asked, "Did you find your parents?"
Ron snorted. "That wasn't the hard part, mate."
Hermione grimaced slightly. "We actually found my parents in the second week that we were there. We started in Melbourne and looked around for a few days for them, but there wasn't any sign. It was the same story in Canberra and Sydney, but we had better luck in Brisbane. They were in the telephone book because they'd opened up a dentistry practice in a town nearby called Humpybong."
Ginny couldn't hold in her giggle, and Harry cracked a grin next to her. Hermione rolled her eyes. "You're just like your brother," she informed Ginny, who ignored the insult. "Anyways, we spent a week or so watching them. I wanted to see how much they'd changed so I'd know what needed to be fixed in their memories. Ron got his first ever dental examination from them," Hermione added with a barely suppressed laugh.
"It's not funny, Hermione! Imagine you've gone your whole life without people sticking their hands inside your mouth, and then your girlfriend's parents start rummaging around in there with sharp metal tools. It was awful," Ron responded, shaking his head disdainfully.
"It's just… most people don't cry at the dentist," Hermione said carefully, which made Ron turn incredibly red in the face. Ginny thought this was hilarious, and she had no idea how Harry was managing not to double over in laughter, but his face was almost as red as Ron's, trying to keep himself pulled together.
Hermione continued without giving Ron a chance to respond. "When I decided that I knew what to fix in their memories, we… technically, we broke into their house, but they're my parents, so I think it was okay. But the charm didn't work."
Ginny was a little taken aback at Hermione's admission of not being able to perform a spell. "I erased their memory of us breaking in– they were a little frightened– and spent several days trying to determine what went wrong. Finally, I thought I knew what I needed to change, so we went to their house to try again, but it still didn't work.
"I'd read about a hidden magical community near Goondiwindi–" Ginny snorted again "– and it felt like we were running out of options. So we apparated there, and… actually, you wouldn't believe it. It was incredible. We were so surprised because we wouldn't have thought–"
Ron put his arm around her as he cut her off. "They recognised us. Apparently a lot of people in Australia were following as much news as they could about the war here. Not really sure how they were getting copies of the Prophet, but… yeah, it was pretty weird. Like the second we showed up, people were crowding around us. But Australians are absolutely mental– they've got this thing there called vegemite that looks like fudge, but it doesn't taste anything like–"
"Anyways–" Hermione cut him off with a smirk like she could remember him trying that vegemite stuff "– it was so unusual because we never get recognised here. Everyone we met was just so kind though. Of course, they were disappointed that you weren't there, Harry, but they didn't show it too much. Anyways, we spent a couple days there with them. They had a place just like Diagon Alley that we stayed at called Vertick Alley. There were several people who helped us, and finally, this nice old man named Lester found a solution in a book that was written when the first wizards arrived in Australia, hundreds of years ago.
"I didn't fully understand the layers to memories. When I tried to restore their memories originally, they were getting disrupted by all the new memories they'd formed and the falsified ones I'd given them. I needed to take more time to peel those layers back and repair the missing pieces in their memories."
Ginny and Harry both stared at Hermione blankly outside the entrance to The Three Broomsticks. "It didn't make any sense to me either, and she talked about it nonstop for three days," Ron assured them as he opened the door.
"So this new way of doing things worked?" Ginny asked, much more curious about the outcome than the process. Hermione nodded but didn't say anything more until after they had taken a table in the corner and Ron and Harry had gone to the bar to get butterbeers.
"I'm glad you're back," she added while they waited for the boys to return.
Hermione smiled. "We missed you both. So much, actually. How have things been here?"
Ginny opened her mouth to say something but hesitated. "We're okay, but there's definitely some stuff you should know about. Once you finish with your story, I mean."
Hermione looked puzzled, but Harry and Ron returned at that moment, laughing at something. "What's so funny?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, nothing really. We were just talking to some people who were happy to see Ron," Harry answered, gesturing behind them, and Ginny noticed for the first time how busy the pub was. She noticed Astoria with some Slytherin girls at a couple tables by the fireplace, while Owen and his friends were at the bar that the boys had just returned from.
"So whatever you did worked?" Ginny asked again once everyone was seated.
"It did. It was incredibly… disconcerting to watch. One moment they were Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and the next second, I could tell they were my parents again. They had all the memories of their real life and the new life they'd built, but they were so excited to see me that I couldn't tell them right away why everything had happened. And then they realised that it was my birthday, and–"
"Oh my gosh. I can't believe we forgot your birthday," Ginny interrupted, glancing at Harry like he should've remembered it too, but he shrugged blankly.
Hermione shook her head. "It's fine. I forgot it too, and it's not like you could've done anything for me when we were in Australia regardless. But my parents took us out to dinner at this lovely restaurant in Brisbane to celebrate. They were really quite taken with Ron too. It's odd that we've known each other for so long and he'd never met my parents before, but–"
"I've never met your parents either," Harry chimed in.
"Neither have I. I'm surprised Ron wasn't terrified to meet your family for the first time," Ginny added with a grin towards her brother.
"Honestly, I was a little nervous when we first found them, but once I got used to being around them, even though they weren't really them, I wasn't really worried when they finally went back to normal," Ron replied, probably not noticing the pleased look Hermione was giving him.
"And they liked you anyways. Even if you didn't know what to make of the restaurant," Hermione said, giggling a little but offering no further explanation once the tips of Ron's ears reddened. "The next day though, they started asking why they'd ended up in Australia with no memory of me, and…"
Hermione trailed off, looking like she might cry. Ginny was a little impressed to see Ron immediately put an arm around her, offering comfort she very obviously needed.
He looked up at them and continued from where she'd left off. "Hermione told them about everything. She'd been downplaying how bad things were getting in our world for the past couple years so they wouldn't worry, so she had to explain that and why she had to send them away. It was… pretty clear they weren't happy, but they were hearing us out, so I told them about everything that happened this year. Being on the run, the battle… all of it.
"They couldn't really decide how to feel, I think. They were mad, but they were also really sad about everything we went through, and you could tell they were still proud of what Hermione did. But they asked us to give them some space while they sorted through things with each other. That was… hard."
Hermione wiped her eyes and took over storytelling again. "We spent a couple days in the city and on the beach, until Mum and Dad told us they were ready to talk. They told me they were disappointed in me for lying to them and changing their memories without talking to them. Really… I still don't think I did anything wrong. I understand why they feel like that, but I couldn't take any chances of Riddle finding them."
All three of them nodded, completely understanding her explanation, even if they may not have arrived at the same conclusion that she had. "But they told me that they were very proud of what all of us did. They're very interested in Muggle history, so I tried explaining to them that Riddle was like the worst dictators Muggles have ever had. They seemed a little more understanding and a little less upset once they understood just how dangerous everything was.
"They took a couple weeks to get everything sorted with their business. They were able to sell it to a dentist they'd hired to join their practice a couple weeks before we arrived. They also found a buyer for their house very quickly, so we were able to return home sooner than we thought. Honestly, we were wondering if we'd make it back by December, but we got lucky."
"But everything's okay with your parents now?" Ginny asked.
Hermione frowned slightly. "Yes… and no. Things are still a little tense, but it's not as bad as it was those first couple days. We're helping them get settled back at home, so hopefully once things get back to normal, things will calm down between us."
Everyone took a collective sip of butterbeer, wishing there was more that could be done to help the situation with Hermione and her parents, but Ginny thought time would heal things better than anything they could do. Hermione was a hero, and she wouldn't have been able to do what she did if she was worried about her parents. One day, they'd see that. Ginny was sure of it.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
When Harry had seen Ron and Hermione for the first time today, it had suddenly hit him just how long they'd been separated. With all the time they'd spent together, especially over the last year, Harry hadn't really realised how odd it was not to be able to talk to them regularly until they were back and they'd fallen into their same familiar pattern of interaction. He'd missed them. A lot. And even though they weren't going to be at Hogwarts with him and Ginny, they'd still get to see each other much more regularly now.
As their conversation went on, Harry did notice that things seemed to be a little different between Ron and Hermione. He knew he was obtuse when it came to relationships– how long did it take him to realise he fancied Ginny? But they seemed much closer than they had when they left. He supposed that spending all that time alone would've had to bring them closer if it didn't drive them apart. And he was happy for them. For all four of them, actually, sitting around a table in The Three Broomsticks like old times.
"So how's it been going back to school?" Ron asked, distracting everyone from the conversation about Hermione's relationship with her parents.
"Er– it's been… interesting," Harry answered noncommittally, glancing over to see Ginny raising her eyebrows sarcastically.
"It's been a long six weeks," she added, which of course only added to Ron and Hermione's burgeoning curiosity.
"What's happened?" Hermione asked, rapidly looking between the two of them. Harry nodded to Ginny, feeling tired of telling this story, and she snorted, shaking her head.
"Coward," she said with a sideways smile at him. "As usual, a professor decided to have it out for Harry. The Defence professor was an ex-Auror named Adrian Grimhall, and he spent the first couple weeks of class making a lot of backhanded comments that implied that everything Harry did was dramatised and overexaggerated by the press. He had us practise Disarming and Shield Charms on the first day, and he acted like Harry didn't know what he was doing, which backfired when Harry disarmed him."
Ron laughed but Hermione just glanced worriedly at him. "Most days, Grimhall was subtle with his comments, but a couple weeks ago, he took things too far when he acted like nobody in his class knew anything about duelling even though several people were at the battle. He practically told us that he didn't think we were capable of fighting and then said that us winning was lucky anyways, which really set Harry off."
"You didn't argue with him?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"I– you should've heard him, Hermione. You wouldn't have let him say that stuff either," Harry responded, thinking she just didn't understand just how bad it was.
"You were completely right," Ginny assured him. "And it was pretty awesome to hear you call him a coward."
Ron laughed again. "Bloody hell, I wish I'd been there to see this!"
"Well, Harry got detention from it–" Hermione looked unsurprised "– but it wasn't a normal detention…" Ginny trailed off, looking over to Harry as if she didn't want to be the one to tell this part.
Harry sighed. "He'd mentioned that he read about my hearing in the Prophet over the summer and he didn't believe it. So… his punishment was for me to go into the Forest for an hour to– to prove how much of a hero I was."
He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen such a viciously angry expression on both of their faces. They were shocked and appalled, yet he couldn't help but feel a small bit of pride that they were this upset on his behalf.
"You didn't…" Hermione began, shaking her head even though she already knew the answer.
"Yeah. Yeah I did. It didn't go well though," Harry answered.
"Harry had left me the Marauder's Map so I'd know when he was coming back. I noticed that he wasn't in Grimhall's office just a few minutes after it started, and when I saw that he was walking to the forest, I ran and got McGonagall to go to the forest with me. Firenze, the centaur… he brought Harry back. Apparently Harry had passed out somewhere near where the… where it all happened. But we couldn't wake him up, so Hagrid carried him to the Hospital Wing."
Harry felt a twist in his gut and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He did his best to ignore his very physical reaction to hearing Ginny telling this horrible story from her perspective. Ron and Hermione looked horrified, and Hermione wasn't even looking at Ginny anymore. She was staring at him with tears in her eyes. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, trying to push the feeling away as Ginny continued.
"Madam Pomfrey couldn't do anything, so Amelia, his Healer, came and told us to make him comfortable and he'd wake up soon. He was pretty still throughout the night, and he finally woke up the next morning. McGonagall was pretty pissed off about it though, and she told Grimhall he couldn't ever treat students like that again."
"I should think not," Hermione almost snapped, angrily wiping her eyes.
"You were in a panic attack for an entire night?" Ron asked in an almost hollow voice.
"I–" Harry tried before nodding and looking down at the table, not wanting to remember the horrible things he'd seen that night. Ginny took his hand under the table and traced shapes on the back of it, reminding him that he was okay and he was with the people he loved. It was all okay now.
"I can't believe McGonagall didn't sack him," Ron said, shaking his head.
"She thought she'd taken care of everything. But it didn't matter because a week later, Grimhall challenged Harry to a duel," Ginny replied in a bright tone that took them a second to comprehend.
"What?" they asked loudly in unison.
"He did not," Ron tried, but Harry nodded.
"Pretty much. He said he wanted a volunteer for a duelling demonstration, and when nobody volunteered, he picked me. Only it wasn't as much of a demonstration as an attack."
"It was obvious he was actually trying to beat you. And Harry was just on the defensive until something changed and then he–"
"He almost hurt you," Harry offered an explanation, not immediately noticing Ginny's wide eyed, loving expression.
"When he threw the desk?" Ginny asked.
"He threw a desk?" Ron asked incredulously. They both nodded without looking at him.
"Yeah. Until then, I didn't want to fight him. But then… I know you can protect yourself, but still. He could've hurt you," Harry said. Ginny smiled before giving him a quick kiss, just enough to let him taste the butterbeer on her lips and feel her warmth.
"You still know how to sweet talk a girl, Potter," she replied, grinning as she turned back to the couple sitting across from them. Harry followed suit, and almost smiled at Ron not reacting awkwardly to them kissing for once while Hermione smiled at them both like she was still so happy they were together.
"Anyways, Harry and Grimhall fought, desks and chairs and chalkboards were being thrown around, and it honestly felt like a real duel to the death or something. I don't know how long it lasted before Harry ducked behind a desk, and Grimhall threw it out of the way, but he was gone. He started asking everyone where Harry went before getting in my face. Then Harry disarmed him, took off the Invisibility Cloak, and told him to 'get the hell away from his girlfriend' before casting a Body-Bind Curse on him. It was rather sexy," Ginny added in a whisper that made Harry blush, especially when she started rubbing his thigh.
"You duelled an ex-Auror and won? Wicked," Ron enthused, giving Harry a fist bump of approval.
Hermione tried to maintain a more disapproving demeanour, but Harry knew her well enough to see her trying to hide a smile of pride. "Good to know you're not just good at defeating dark lords then," she finally said, letting the smile creep fully onto her face as Ginny and Ron howled with laughter.
Once things had calmed down, Harry added, "McGonagall did sack Grimhall after that at least."
"About time. And who's teaching Defence now?" Hermione asked curiously.
Ginny gave him a knowing look, and he smiled slightly. "Er– that… would be me."
"Sorry?" Hermione asked as if she misheard him.
"McGonagall said she couldn't find anyone else to teach, and she thought I did a good job with the D.A. so she wanted me to try teaching everyone. We do weekly lessons on Fridays, and I've got some people helping me out so it's not too bad."
"You're teaching Defence to the entire school?" Ron asked.
"Yep. I mean yesterday was only the second lesson, but I'd say it's going well so far."
"It definitely is," Ginny agreed.
Hermione shook her head in amazement. "So… in the past six weeks, you created a new rivalry with a professor, had a traumatic panic attack, beat said professor in a duel, and are now the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Anything else?"
"Quidditch is going great. Gryffindor's gonna be the team to beat this season," Ginny added the most important piece of information, which made Ron instantly grin as Hermione glanced towards him.
"Hey, speaking of Quidditch, I wanted the two of you to be the first to know… you know how I spent the last part of the summer meeting with the owner of the Cannons? Well, they're not doing well this season, and last weekend, I took Mister Trumble's offer to come watch a match with him. They lost by three hundred points, but that doesn't matter. After the match, he told me that he wanted me to be an assistant coach for the team, and I start on Monday!" Ron blurted out quickly. Harry blinked once, processing this announcement before breaking into a wide grin.
"That's incredible!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Congratulations, mate! You deserve it," Harry added, returning the fist bump Ron had given him earlier.
Ron was smiling proudly. "Thanks. It still doesn't feel real. I've wanted to do something like this my whole life, and now it's really happening. Mum said we're gonna have a party after the next match, so you'll both have to be there."
"I thought you said we were the first people you were telling," Ginny implored.
"I said I wanted you two to be the first to know. But there was no way I could keep this a secret all week," he replied, still grinning.
"You're gonna be brilliant," Harry predicted, thinking that Ron was perfectly suited to being a Quidditch coach between his love of the game and strategic wit.
"Have you started your job yet, Hermione?" Ginny asked.
Hermione shook her head. "I'll start in a couple weeks, once my parents are settled down. Kingsley told me to take all the time I needed before coming to work."
"That was nice of him," Harry commented, and Hermione nodded.
"That's Kingsley," she replied simply.
Harry couldn't help but smile looking around the table at his three best friends. They'd all grown up– Ron and Hermione were starting real jobs soon in fields they were wildly passionate about, and he and Ginny had the rest of the year to figure out what the future held for them together. And the best part was that it felt so natural.
That night in bed, after they'd walked back to the castle and he'd endured Hagrid's jokes about Harry being a fellow professor now, he whispered to Ginny, "You know… something that should've been on my list a while ago is that I love how easily you fit in with me, Ron, and Hermione. It feels like you should've been there the whole time."
"That's because I should've been," she whispered back to him, even though he could tell she was smiling at his comment as she wriggled her way closer to him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. He smiled too, thinking the future he had looked incredibly bright, even if he didn't have a job that was waiting for him. That didn't really matter. Not compared to the future he had with his friends, his family, and Ginny. That was the future he had fought for.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
A/N: They're finally back! It's kind of crazy that we went about nine chapters without having Ron and Hermione in the picture, but I'm very, very happy that they're back and Harry and Ginny are going to be able to spend more time with their best friends, starting next chapter!
The story with Hermione's parents isn't done because, as I'm sure could be expected, returning home after everything presents another set of challenges that didn't exist in Australia. For now though, things are okay– they're back and have all their memories restored. Speaking of, something I've found to be difficult occasionally is actually coming up with magical theory because we really don't get a lot of it in the books. Most of the magic in the books is just spellcasting with very little theory at all, but I feel like theory is important for plot points like this one. So I made up a way to explain how Hermione restored the memories. The idea actually comes from computer storage because I do have a technical background. Basically, when something is deleted from computer memory, that storage space can be used to store new things, and then if you wanted to restore the deleted stuff, it can't really go back in the same place. With human memory, that would be a huge problem, so it made sense to me as a problem Hermione would've encountered and hope that explanation isn't too confusing.
Ron getting hired by the Cannons has been in the works since Mr. Trumble was introduced back in SoR Chapter 25. Strategy is an important part of any sport, and Ron is known to be an incredibly proficient strategist in chess. I fully believe that would translate well to Quidditch, particularly as he is obsessed with the sport. It's also a really, really fun thing to explore for Ron as a massive Cannons fan, and it's cool to give him such a big spotlight with being hired to help coach at a professional team at such a young age. And, frankly, Chudley's situation is so bad, both with money and results, that hiring him might actually help.
In Defence, I'm still excited to continue exploring how Harry teaches, particularly as we have new dynamics now with the seven leads. That number actually worked out perfectly for years, which is a good thing because I didn't have any more ideas for people to add. Aside from the obvious fact that it makes Harry's job easier and more realistic, it also gives us another place to interact with more and more people, including Astoria and Owen, who are new to us in this chapter. It's tough for me to put myself in the shoes sometimes of what it would be like to not know everything that's to come, and seeing Astoria and Owen introduced is as much one of those moments as when Mia got introduced earlier in this book or when Emily was introduced in SoR. We're just getting to know them, but they're all going to be very important characters in Harry and Ginny's lives, so it's exciting to finally let you all meet them!
A couple small notes before wrapping up… yes, I did literally look up 'funniest town names in Australia' and then picked ones that I thought were great and in the same region, and then I picked Brisbane as the city for Hermione's parents to be there because it didn't really make much difference to me other than it being close to Humpybong. On Snape's password being 'Humbug' in Ginny's memory, I know some people think it was 'Dumbledore' because Harry says that to get into the office in the Battle, but to me, that statue was broken and going to let him in no matter what he said because it makes no sense for Snape to have his password be that. I'm also partial to mine because the term humbug obviously has a negative connotation (thanks Mr. Scrooge!) but it's also a candy. More specifically, mint humbugs are little pieces of candy that exist in the wizarding world, but they're Muggle candy, and, because I spend wayyyy too much time thinking about tiny things like Snape's office password, I decided that Lily's favourite candy would be mint humbugs because they're both magical and Muggle, and that's the real reason that's Snape's password. He may not be totally evil, but he's definitely the kind of creepy guy who would've made his crush's favourite candy a password… just saying!
And I think that'll do it for Catching Up! I really, really hope you all enjoyed Ron and Hermione's return and hearing more about what they'd been up to. It's great to have them back! As always, feel free to let me know your thoughts on this chapter or anything else! Also feel free to wish me luck because today's the start of moving week, and I'll be spending the weekend driving a thousand miles to my new home for graduate school! Very excited but already dreading all the moving haha! But enough about me, I know you're all much more interested in the next chapter, so let's see that preview!
Coming Friday: Hallowed Truth- "Happy Halloween, Teddy."
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
qUg060: I'm glad you're enjoying the way I'm writing all the brothers, and thank you so much for that encouragement! McGonagall's top priority with Grimhall was just getting him out of the school. Like you said, there's a ton that isn't known about how the Wizarding World handles punishments like that, and there is also the fact that their culture embraces danger more than the real world does. Not to say he doesn't deserve more punishment, but that sort of remains to be seen, and it's also possible that Harry and Ginny wouldn't be kept informed about it since it's more McGonagall's business than theirs at that point.
Guest (1, I guess?): I do think it's reasonable that Grimhall would've been less destructive if he'd been dueling anyone else, but I also think (and this is with me knowing a bit more about Grimhall than anyone else does to this point) that he would've eventually made sure to duel Harry, even if he had to mock duel everyone else first. The alternative is that he duels Ginny super hard because she's close to Harry, and the main reason I think they'd be concerned about that would be that, to this point, he's shown that he very much has it out for Harry and nobody else. So she would be at risk because Harry's just a better duelist than her, which isn't a slight against her, just a compliment to Harry. So I do think that, realistically, Harry would always end up dueling Grimhall, and I could definitely see him being at risk of snapping and doing something he'd really regret if Grimhall actually threatened Ginny's life.
And to your second point, yeah, it does sort of mean that. I guess I could get technical and say that it's possible that it was a tie with other classes, and I should also mention that when I say 'most', I mean most as a percentage of the class rather than most students because I think the classes before Harry's were likely larger. I do think that Lupin, Moody, and Harry would all be very close in terms of how well they prepared people, and I'll admit that it may be a bit of an exaggeration in order to provide further evidence for why Harry should take the job. But I would say that the real reason for it is that more students are motivated to prioritise Defence than before. We see that Harry's class is particularly interested in Defence, but I think that's largely because a constant reminder of war, Harry, is with them. Lupin and Moody/Crouch were great teachers, but they were teaching during times of peace, and it makes some sense to me that there would be people who just didn't prioritise their education as much, particularly in a subject that might've seemed irrelevant to a lot of people who weren't involved with the events of the first few books like the trio was. I don't know if that's a great explanation, but that's the one I've got haha!
Finnspa23: I know you didn't ask a question really, but I just wanted to say thank you for indulging and encouraging my sometimes dirty sense of humour!
Guest (2): I think in a normally functioning society, emergency contacts would definitely matter at school. But the wizarding world is very far from normally functioning. As far as we know, Hogwarts never once contacted the Dursleys despite Harry spending time in the Hospital Wing pretty much every year. We also know for sure that in CoS, Hogwarts wasn't telling anyone about the petrifications, including the families of the victims. I also do think that Harry isn't really treated like a normal student at this point either, being an adult, war hero, etc. But I do think you make a good point, it's just that I don't think Hogwarts is anywhere near being 'advanced enough' to have things like normal safety protocols in place, even though they would be a very good idea.